Abstract
THE method now in common use for determining the number of bacteria in soil by colony counts admittedly provides an estimate of only a small fraction of the total numbers in the soil, since any one medium will enable only a few of the physiological groups of the bacterial population to develop. The method of direct counts of bacteria in films of the actual soil was rendered possible by the development of a suitable staining technique by H. J. Conn and by S. Winogradsky. Both these workers have suggested methods by which estimates of the bacterial numbers in a soil sample can be made.
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GRAY, P., THORNTON, H. The Estimation of Bacterial Numbers in Soil by Direct Counts from Stained Films. Nature 122, 400–401 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122400a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122400a0
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